Custom Curtains For The Trailer

My husband's family owns property in Northern Minnesota that we spend quite a bit of time visiting in the Spring and Summer.  When my husband, daughter and I visit we stay in the old travel trailer that my husband's grandparents used to own.  

The trailer is pretty cozy and comfortable, but let's just say the curtains could use some help.  Ok, they were almost 40 years old and falling apart.  I finally decided to do something about it and have been busy making new custom curtains for the trailer windows.  The picture here shows the before and after.  The orange curtains on the right are the old ones and the beige ones on the left are the new ones I just made.

Since the curtain rods have clips to hold the curtains on, I didn't need to make any rod pockets so the construction was pretty simple.  I just needed to make rectangles cut to size and hem them.  In case you'd like to make some of your own, this is how I did it.

Measure the width of the windows, adding a couple inches on each side.  Then measure the height of the windows from the curtain rod to a couple inches below the window.  Then decide how much of a hem you want to have at the sides, top and bottom. 

For these curtains I purchased cotton duck fabric since it's durable and machine washable.  Also, with this fabric I didn't need to add curtain lining.  These windows just happened to be about the right size to do 2 panels of 44/45" fabric for each section, so I only had to cut the length and not the width.  Then I folded over about 3/4" on each side (enough to fold over the selvage edges) and stitched them in place.  For the top hem I folded over 1/2" to the wrong side of the fabric, stitched it in place and repeated.  For the bottom hem I folded over 1/2" and stitched in place, and then folded over 1 1/4" and stitched in place.  And voila... A completed curtain panel!